Poetry Of Life
by Jenebra
Summary: Ever since they were little, he's watched her, quietly waiting for the perfect moment to make his move. Of course, his crush isn't much of a secret - in fact, he's certain she knows. But maybe being project partners for a Modern Literature class will finally give him the chance he needs to convince her that she loves him too. Modern AU.
1. Chapter 1

**To any of you who have been reading my other fanfic, When Katniss Met Peeta, or my collaboration fic with DrowningEmbers, Plenty of Fish in the Sea, yes, I should be working on those. But I had this idea...and well...things happen. Oops. For those of you who read that and are now sufficiently worried, I'M STILL WRITING THOSE. DO NOT FREAK OUT ON ME. I'm just going to be writing this one, too. Hope you like it! Read and review and all that jazz.**

_In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes/For they in thee a thousand errors note_

It came as it did every year, the dreaded August morning when the bells would ring and the busses would honk and the students would drag themselves out of the warm confines of their beds and into the too-hot metal seats of knowledge.

Today was the first day of school.

Unlike many of her classmates, Katniss had no problem getting up on time. She and Gale had spent the summer sneaking out of their homes in the wee hours of the morning and racing to the forest to hunt. Most days they'd go home after a few hours, as Gale had to get to his summer job at the REI in town, while Katniss went and volunteered at the hospital after dropping her little sister, Prim, off at daycare. But on the weekends, they would bring a tent and blankets and snacks and play until the light faded, at which point they would curl up under the stars together.

An hour before the first bell rang, Katniss wandered into Prim's room and shook the younger girl gently awake.

"Come on, Little Duck," she cooed, "time to get up."

Prim groaned, but got up nonetheless and stumbled her way into the bathroom to shower and change clothes while Katniss headed downstairs to make their lunches.

Just as she was finishing cutting Prim's PB&J into hearts with a cookie cutter, the little girl came bounding down the stairs.

"Katniss?" she asked, standing on tip-toe to see over the counter.

"Yes, Little Duck?" Katniss set the sandwich in a Ziploc bag and placed it in Prim's Hello Kitty backpack.

"What if I don't make any friends?" The fear in her eyes was nearly tangible.

Katniss came around the counter to wrap her arms around her sister. "Why would you ask a thing like that? Of course you'll make friends. Who wouldn't want to be friends with someone as cool as you?"

"But last week Rory said that he wouldn't be my friend because girls have cooties and I'm a girl so we can't be friends anymore!"

Katniss chuckled. "I have a feeling that by the time you're my age, that boy's going to be banging down our front door just to spend time with you."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Prim thought for a second before giving a cautious "ok" and reaching for her morning waffle, which Katniss had laid out on the counter for her.

"Come on Little Duck," Katniss said, grabbing her own book bag and car keys, "time for school."

* * *

While Katniss had never had a problem getting up for school, she had also never been a big fan of education. Sure, her classmates were fine and the teachers were nice enough, but the idea of learning things that she would ultimately never need in life was abhorrent to her.

Then again, there was one classmate who she wasn't so fond of.

Peeta Mellark.

Ever since the first grade, everywhere she went, his eyes followed her. It was as though she had her own personal stalker, and she just couldn't stand it. Besides, rumor on the street was that he'd liked her forever – and yes, that means _like_ like – and she just couldn't find it in her to feel the same.

It wasn't that Peeta was bad to look at. Sure, he'd been confined to his too-orange wheelchair since he lost his leg in that car accident six years earlier, and yes, one arm was scarred and withered from the bakery fire of '09, but his face was pleasant to look at, and Katniss would never dismiss him because of his disabilities. If anything, the grace with which he'd dealt with his hardships endeared him to her more than if he'd been some football jock who'd been born with a golden ticket to success.

It was merely that his obvious infatuation with her made her feel like a bug under a microscope – pinned down to her card and unable to shake the feeling that someone was watching her. It was so horribly unsettling and immature that she could barely handle it.

And now, as she walked into Modern Literature on the first day of school and surveyed the room for a seat, she noticed that only one was available. And Peeta Mellark had parked himself right next to it.

Grumbling, she made her way to the empty seat and sat down, mumbling a quiet "hello" to the thrilled boy next to her, who quickly cleared a space for her to set her books on.

Gale caught her eye from across the room.

_Why didn't you save me a seat?_ She mouthed to him.

_I tried._ He mouthed back. _But Glimmer forced herself into it._

Katniss's eyes moved about 2 inches to the left, where Glimmer, dressed in a too-tight white t-shirt with a neon pink bra that shone right through the material and a pair of shorts that barely covered her ass, was desperately trying to gain Gale's attention.

Lucky for Glimmer, Katniss's attention was drawn away from the blonde girl when Mr. M entered the room and placed his briefcase down on the front desk.

"Good morning class, I hope you all had a nice summer, and I trust you all did your reading," Mr. M spoke dryly.

No one responded.

"Well, one can hope," he sighed.

To the outsider, Mr. M seemed like a very pedantic, patronizing teacher, but his dry and sarcastic sense of humor kept the students who'd had him more than happy to in his classroom.

"Does anyone have any questions about _Lamb_?"

Again, no response.

"Well then, why don't we just all turn to page 20 and start our discussion, shall we?"

"Katniss," whispered a voice from beside her. She turned to see Peeta's ocean-blue eyes boring into her own.

"Yeah," she asked, a little harsher than she'd intended. Peeta didn't seem to notice.

"Can I share books with you? I forgot to bring mine today…"

Katniss almost laughed. "You forgot your book on the first day of school? Not a great way to kick off the new year, Mellark."

Peeta rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, so can I share or not?"

She consented, opening to the proper page and holding the book between them.

* * *

"Well, it would appear we're nearly out of time," said Mr. M, glancing passively at his watch. "There's one other thing I want to tell you before you all make a run for the door. Unlike previous years, this year this class will consist of a lot of partner work. Now, I don't want to have to deal with the drama of people scrambling for partners at the last minute, so I'm just gonna make this easy. Turn to the person next to you."

Katniss turned to Peeta, who was already staring at her, as he had been off-and-on throughout the class discussion. He smiled shyly and Katniss attempted to smile back.

"Now, say hello to your permanent project partner."

Katniss's eyes widened. _Oh no!_ Strangely enough though, it wasn't her who protested.

"Wait a second, Mr. M!" Gale shot up out of his seat. "You can't do that!"

Mr. M smiled. "Actually, Mr. Hawthorne, I can do whatever I wish. If you have that much of a problem with your pairing, I suggest you transfer to a school in the Netherlands. End of discussion. Class dismissed."

Katniss glanced once more at the beaming boy beside her. _This is gonna be a long year…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow – what a great response for just one chapter! Thanks guys!**

_But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise/Who despite of view is pleased to dote_

Katniss bolted out of her seat and into the hallway, where she was joined by Gale, who tugged her anxiously to her locker.

"What the hell is Mr. M thinking?" he cursed under his breath. "We're always partners!"

"I don't know what you're complaining about – you're the one who couldn't stand up to freaking Glimmer Morris! If you had the capacity to grow a pair we wouldn't be in this mess." Katniss angrily opened her locker and slammed the door against the wall. "Besides, you're not the one who has to spend significant time with your own personal stalker!"

Gale slumped against the wall. "Believe me, I'm no happier than you are to have you and Peeta working together."

Katniss looked at him curiously as she pulled her physics book out of her locker and closed the door. "What do _you_ have against Peeta?"

"I don't like the way he looks at you."

She snorted. "He doesn't look at me any differently than anyone else, he just looks more often than anyone else."

"God, why are you so blind, Katniss?" Gale grabbed her arm in one hand. "Mellark wants into your pants."

"He does not! He just has a little crush."

"A little eleven-year-long crush…"

"Shut up Gale."

"I'm just saying that I'm not ok with you two working together. If he touches you, I swear…"

"Katniss?"

She whipped around at the sound of her name and found Peeta sitting not 2 feet from her.

_Oh no, how much of that conversation did he hear…_

Katniss put on a forced smile. "Hey Peeta, what's up?"

He glanced up at Gale, who was boring holes into Peeta's face with his eyes.

"Uhm…" he turned his attention to back to Katniss, "I was wondering what you wanted to do for the _Lamb_ project? We get to pick from that list Mr. M gave us."

"Oh…right…well I wasn't really paying attention when he went over the seat, but I can put together a poster over the weekend or something…"

"No! I wasn't…I mean…I don't want you to do it by yourself. We're supposed to pick and do something together."

"Ok…any ideas?"

Peeta nodded and smiled. "I was thinking you could come over to my house after school and we could pick something and start working."

"Uh, sure. Wait…Gale?" Katniss turned to Gale. "Can you take Prim home when you go to pick up Rory?"

"No."

"Gale!"

Gale sighed and glared at Peeta as he hissed "fine" through his gritted teeth.

Peeta's smile broadened. "Great! It's just about two blocks away – I'll meet you here after school and we can walk."

"It's a date."

Peeta blushed and wheeled away with a quiet, "bye Katniss."

Katniss turned and began walking in the other direction. Gale followed her.

"You just had to use the word 'date', didn't you," he sneered.

"Shut up, Gale."

* * *

Sure enough, when Katniss arrived at her locker at the end of the day, Peeta was waiting for her.

Katniss nodded at him. "Just let me get my books and then we can leave."

"Ok."

The walk to Peeta's house was a quiet one, in spite of his attempts to ignite conversation with Katniss. She just wouldn't go for it.

Finally, they reached the house.

"This is me," he sighed as he began to roll up to the front door. He turned the handle forcefully and pushed, inviting Katniss to go in ahead of him. She smiled and stepped in.

Everything she saw was white. The walls, the floors, the furniture, the appliances – everything. It was as though someone had spilled powdered sugar on everything and then forgotten to clean it up.

"Nice place." Katniss said as her eyes followed the curve of the white staircase.

Peeta shrugged. "It's ok, I guess. Come on, we can set up in my room."

Katniss followed him down the hallway to the back of the house, silently passing a kitchen, bathroom, and television room, as well as a closed door that Katniss assumed was a coat closet.

At the end of the hallway was a small white door which was wider than all the others. It also had no turnable door handle – it was a push and pull with no resistance, so it required hardly any effort to get from one side to the other. Peeta demonstrated this when he rolled forward and pushed it open with his legs. Katniss followed him, drawn into the room by the heavenly scent of cinnamon sugar.

In contrast to the rest of the house, Peeta's bedroom was not white. Instead, it was a faint orange, like the color his wheelchair would be if it were left to fade in the sun for 20 years. The walls were covered with various paintings of nature. A dandelion swaying in the breeze, the meadow on a warm summer day, breathtaking sunsets comprised of yellow, red, and every color in between. But the most captivating of them all hung directly above the navy-blue covered twin bed. It was a tree. There wasn't anything particularly special about this tree, except that the painting itself forced Katniss to do a double take to check that it wasn't a photograph. And sitting way up in one of the branches, there was a girl. A beautiful girl dressed in a red plaid dress and with a single brown braid cascading down her shoulders and past her breasts.

Katniss recognized the dress.

_Is that…me?_

She was at a complete loss for words.

"Peeta…I…is that…I mean…"

Peeta nodded, cutting her off. "It's you."

She stared at him.

"Before you freak out," he said, leaning forward in his chair and placing what was meant to be a reassuring hand on her upper arm, "I'm not a stalker. And I don't mean to be creepy. You just…make a good subject."

Katniss thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly. "It's beautiful…why did you paint it?"

Peeta shrugged. "I wanted to paint something beautiful. You're good inspiration for that sort of thing." His cheeks began to color. "Besides, I wanted you to be the last thing I saw every night and the first thing I saw every morning. But up until today I just…I couldn't get up the nerve to even talk to you, much less tell you that. And I honestly don't know _why_ I told you…I guess it just kind of feels good to get it off my chest. And now I'm rambling which I know makes me sound like an idiot, but I just want you to know that I think you're the most beautiful girl in the whole world and that I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember and that I think you're funny and smart and amazing and there's just not anyone else like you in the whole world."

Katniss stared at him. What was he saying? He _loved_ her?

Peeta cleared his throat. "Say something?"

"Uhm…I think we should do a diorama for the project."

Peeta looked disappointed. "Oh yeah. A diorama."

Katniss nodded. "That way you can paint a truly beautiful background for it."

He smiled. "Ok, Katniss. Let's get to work."


	3. Chapter 3

**Don't hate me! (I'm giving you warning ahead of time.)**

_Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted/Nor tender feelings to base touches prone._

"So how's the stalker?" Gale asked as he walked through the antique-ish shopping center, the Hob, with Katniss.

Katniss dug her elbow into his ribs. "His name is Peeta and he's not a stalker, he's my friend."

"I thought you thought he was creepy!"

"Yeah, well, we've spent a lot of time together over the past couple months. He's a cool guy. You'd like him if you got to know him."

Gale snuffed, "I doubt it."

Katniss stopped walking and turned to Gale. "What is your problem? Peeta's a good guy! Why do you hate him so much?"

"I just hate the way he looks at you."

Disbelief rushed out of Katniss with a huff. "So what if he's got a little crush! Get over it! I don't even understand why you care."

Gale was silent for a moment before quietly mumbling, "I care because I don't want you to feel the same about him."

"…what?"

He cleared his throat. "I care because I don't want you to…"

"Yeah, I heard what you said. But why do you not want that?"

Pause. "I want you to want me."

Katniss stared at him. What was he saying? _Gale_ wanted her? Since when! And why the hell was he bringing that up now? Unless…

"That's a sick joke, Gale."

He reached for her arm before she could walk away. "It's not a joke Katniss."

She struggled in his grip. "Let go of me! Gale, let me go!"

He released her, but persisted vocally. "Katniss, don't you see it? I love you."

"You love me?"

"Yes. You're smart. You're cute. You're sexy. You're funny. I love you."

"I…you…I mean…you can't just…damn you, Gale! You can't say that!"

"Well I'm gonna say it anyway. I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you."

"Go to hell, Gale! I'm leaving."

"What? No! Don't go."

"I promised Peeta I'd meet him at the bakery in an hour. I've got to go."

Gale's jaw dropped. "Really? I just told you that I love you and you're gonna go to him?"

"At least I know that when he tells me things like that he's being sincere."

"I _am_ being sincere!"

"Oh yeah, you've only had our entire lives to tell me, but now that another guy has decided he wants to be with me, you suddenly do too?"

"I haven't told you before because I care too much about our friendship to say something like that and have it get all awkward. But I've always felt this way."

Katniss headed to the doors with a drawn out, sarcastic "sure".

"I'm telling the truth, Catnip! I love you!"

"Goodbye Gale."

And the doors shut behind her.

* * *

She made it three blocks before the tears started falling. The people walking by paid her no mind as she slumped down on the sidewalk, letting the emotions take over.

"Whoa, are you ok?" A lanky, tanned blonde boy squatted down in front of Katniss.

She was startled. "Yeah. I'm…uh…"

He smiled softly, "you don't look ok."

His eyes were pale blue with brown circles around the irises and his hands were large and calloused. Kinder than kind and gentler than gentle, the boy took Katniss's hands and helped her to stand up.

"Now wipe those tears away. There we are. Much better." He cupped her face and ran his thumbs across her cheeks, effectively ridding them of the salty moisture. Katniss wasn't sure why she let him do it, but after what had just gone down with Gale, she just wanted to feel like she had a friend.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

"I was getting ready to go get some lunch before I go to work," the boy said. "Would you like to join me?"

Katniss shrugged, and when he started walking, she followed beside him.

"I'm Rye, by the way," he said, smiling at her.

"Katniss."

He held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Katniss. So, why were you crying?"

Katniss shrugged. "No reason."

Rye laughed. "Yeah right. No one cries for no reason."

"Maybe I do. You don't know my life."

He nodded. "True. Ok, let's say that no one whose life I _do_ know cries for no reason."

"Better."

"But seriously, why were you crying."

She shook her head. "You don't want to know."

"Yes I do. If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't have asked."

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

"I'd rather not share it."

"I don't care."

Katniss glared at him. "Fine. I had a fight with my best friend."

Rye cringed in mock horror. "Ah, girl fights. Those can get nasty."

"It wasn't a girl fight. Gale's a boy."

"Oh…boyfriend?"

Katniss saw red. "No, he is not my boyfriend! We're just friends and that's how I like it, ok?"

Cautious, Rye asked, "I just hit a soft spot, didn't I? I'm sorry."

Katniss shook her head to clear it. "It's ok...I just…that's sort of what our fight was about."

Rye waited patiently for her to elaborate.

"There's this guy at my school…he's my project partner for one of my classes…and he told me a couple months ago that he…_likes_ me. And then Gale got all upset with him and then told me he loves me and…I just don't know what to think anymore."

Rye nodded in contemplation. "That's tough, though I can't say that I disagree with them for finding you attractive."

By now, Katniss was feeling much more comfortable around this stranger, so she nudged him in the ribs. "Shut up."

Rye turned towards a store window and paused before reaching for the handle.

"Proposal," he said. "what if I promised not to call you pretty or attractive and not to say that I like or love you, would you be willing to give me your number so I could call you some time? Maybe we could get together? See a movie or something?"

Katniss looked at him skeptically. "Are you asking me out?"

"Maybe. Are you saying yes?"

"Maybe."

Rye smiled. "Shall we get some lunch then?"

"Definitely."

He opened the door and they grabbed a table in the little bakery/café. Rye showed her the menu and then slipped off to use the restroom. Katniss smiled as she looked over the columns of dishes.

"Hi, can I take your order?"

Katniss shook her head, still looking at the menu. "No, I'm not quite ready yet, but thank you." She looked up to smile at the waiter, but as soon as she saw him, she frowned.

"Katniss?"

It was Peeta.

She raised a hand in hello. "Hey, Peeta."

"What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you for another half hour…"

"Wait…this is your bakery?"

"Yeah. I get off work in a little bit…but uhm…"

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I'm just here having lunch with someone."

Peeta paled. "Really, who is—"

"Hey Peet-y!" Rye came up behind him and slapped him on the back. "Katniss, this is Peeta, Peeta this is Katniss."

"Wait," Katniss interjected, "you two know each other?"

"_You_ two know each other?" Peeta gasped.

"Yeah."

Katniss turned to Peeta. "How do you know Rye?" she asked.

"Katniss, Rye's my twin brother."

**I love you, don't hurt me! Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm still alive! Yay, you didn't hate me for the plot twist. This chapter is really short, but I didn't have a lot of time and wanted to get past the awkwardness.**

**On a totally unrelated note, I've been toying with the idea of continuing my first-ever fanfic, "My Angel". If you've read it and/or have opinions about my picking it up again, notify me in a review or PM.**

**Enjoy!**

Katniss stood and stammered for a second, looking back and forth between the two boys.

"Twins?" she asked.

They nodded in unison.

"Peeta, why didn't you tell me you had a twin brother?"

Peeta shrugged. "It never came up."

She turned on Rye. "And you, why have I never seen you before?"

"I don't go to your school," Rye stated mater-of-factly.

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I go to a school uptown for kids with specific needs."

Katniss was confused.

"I have dyslexia," Rye clarified, "so I go to the special education charter school uptown."

She nodded in understanding. Everyone was silent for a moment.

Finally, Rye ducked down and whispered in his brother's ear, "so…I'm kind of trying to make something happen here…do you mind rolling off for a bit?"

Now it was Peeta's turn to be confused. "Make something happen?"

"Yeah. Katniss half-agreed to go out with me, and I'm trying to seal the deal, you know?"

Katniss's heart broke as she saw the look on Peeta's face. She hadn't meant to hurt him, and if she'd only known that he was Rye's brother… But what was done was done, and Peeta rolled, sullen-faced, into the back room.

Rye scratched the back of his neck and gestured for Katniss to sit while mumbling an apologetic, "sorry about that."

"It's ok." _No it's not._ She would never say that aloud though.

Rye nodded. "So…what are you gonna get?"

And suddenly the tension was gone…for now.

* * *

Peeta was a whirlwind later that afternoon when he and Katniss were alone.

"God," he said, "I hope you read this book because I only had time to read the SparkNotes, and they were so not helpful."

"Peeta…"

"And we can't do a diorama again, so I was thinking maybe a poster?"

"Peeta…"

"We can make it look like the land between worlds, with the pools and everything all around it…"

"PEETA!"

He stopped talking and looked over at Katniss, desperately trying to conceal his hurt.

"Yes?" _Keep calm,_ he thought.

"Can we please just talk about what went down between us and your brother earlier?"

Peeta shook his head. "What is there to talk about? The girl I've loved since I was 5 is dating my twin. What's the problem in that?" He reached across the table and grabbed the bowl at the end, offering it to Katniss with a quiet, "want a grape?"

Now she was angry. "You know, you don't have to act so calm about everything all the time! You're allowed to get mad and yell and throw things and say things you don't mean! You're allowed to say you hate me or that you'll never love me again or that you don't care what I do! You don't have to always be the goddamn bigger person, Peeta!"

"And what would my doing all of that accomplish, Katniss? I don't need to yell and throw things, and I don't intend to get angry with you. And I'm not going to stop loving you for something as little as this."

Katniss sighed. "Then what _are_ you gonna do."

"Simple." Peeta popped a grape into his mouth. "I'm gonna win you over."


End file.
